Holy Motors (2012) - Non-linear structure

1. Holy Motors poster

Holy Motors (2012) is a fantasy drama film by french director Leos Carax, featuring Denis Lavant in the lead role. This review will analyze the factors that make up this movie to have a non-linear structure.

The film in itself isn’t one that jumps timelines per say. Generally it sticks to a linear time, depicting a day for Monsieur Oscar, appointment by appointment without any jumps back or forward in time, but it does have an underlying message about the sequence and how it is a repetition in Oscars life. Even more so, this linearity in the movie isn’t with a typical structure. It’s almost as if jumping between different lives and identities, taking you out of the story of Oscar, and into someone else’s entirely, making you unsure, what the main protagonists own story even is.

Regardless, the film begins with a different story and character entirely, already signaling how unconventional in narrative the film is. It is a scene of the director himself. A scene of him lonesome, finding his way back into a cinema as if after a long sleep. It’s filled with symbolism and feeling, and is a short sequence that is independent from the rest of the film, as it makes no effort to connect with anything that will follow. The only recurring bits from the beginning are the black and white clips that repeat at the end of the film.

After the sequence with the director we are taken into the story of Monsieur Oscar. The first scene shows him as a well-off businessman, leaving his loving family as he heads to work as he gets into a limousine. After a business call that talks about increasing security, we are taken out of this reality that the film had established by Oscar taking off the businessman costume. This is where we realise, that we’re not experiencing a set up of a normal world, but more transitions from person to person within an individual. The day will have 9 appointments, and soon, after we see Oscar getting into a crotchety old beggar woman’s get-up and he start begging on the street, we can start assuming that this is one of them.

After this he yet again gets back to his limo and takes the costume off. At this point the audience can only expect to see the unexpected. The film clearly actively uses twists, appointment by appointment, and even when we learn of what the appointment is, we never know what to expect within it. After the beggar woman, Oscar dons a mo-cap suit and heads into a film studio. He performs several intensive fight scenes and has an erotic performance with another female actor, by the end revealing that they’ve been acting out weird sci-fi aliens.

2. Model Kay M. (left) and Monsieur Merde (right)

Back in the limo again he dons a new appearance, of an insane looking man called Monsieur Merde. But before leaving he has himself a take-away meal for lunch while he has a short discussion with his trusty driver Céline. The limousine is where we can see Oscar for himself as he is, it’s the one place where he gets to play his own story and identity. After the short limousine interlude, he’s off into the sewers to get to his destination, then shambling through a cemetery we witness a comical insane scene of him kidnapping a model from a photoshoot and have an odd sequence of sharing space and fulfilling almost painting-esque scenes together.

The film keeps presenting only unexpected and surreal scenes. 

After the madman, Oscar becomes a father, picking up his daughter from a party. Then we’re thrown into a musical interlude as Oscar wades through a church playing an accordian as a whole band of men join him. Following that he becomes a killer, who murders a man that Oscar then transforms to look like the killer he is acting out, who then kills Oscar himself, leaving 2 copies of the killer on the floor bleeding out. The lines in these acts are constantly blurring from  how believable they seem, we’re constantly kept in confusion on what we can believe is real. Oscar shambles out towards his limo, as if on the brink of death as Celine helps pull him in. Soon we’re cut to him unscathed, sitting in the limousine on his way to the next appointment, but this time, he is not alone. There is a new figure, seemingly someone with authority over him, sitting in the limousine who addresses Oscar, informing how his performances haven’t been up to par. That he’s been reported to seem tired. This is yet another scene that informs how, Oscar’s own identity only comes out and is addressed only within the limousine which also serves as his closet and storage of other identities. This scene acts as an indirect breaking of the fourth wall, as they discuss how Oscar misses the presence of cameras, how they used to be as heavy as humans, but now not visible at all, making him paranoid. This directly feels like a point at the audience watching the film, how the performance never ends, even when he’s not in make-up.

On the way to the next appointment he spontaneously asks Céline to stop the car, he hurriedly charges out with a mask on and finds a man who appears to look like the businessman he was acting as in the morning, shooting him in the head. The businessman’s bodyguards then shoot Oscar several times, but yet again, reality is questioned as Céline simply rushes through the gathered crowd to usher Oscar on his way not to miss the next appointment and they both get up and leave. The state of the businessman is left in mystery. The next appointment faces the topic of mortality yet again as he acts out an old uncle on his deathbed as he has a meaningful last conversation with a girl by his side. After the act he leaves, excusing himself about having another appointment, the girl nods understanding, and says that so does she, showing that they both in this scene were only actors, playing yet again with that indirect breaking of the 4th wall and the whole concept of what it means being an actor and where the lines blur.

3. Uncle on death bed

On the way to the next appointment, they are spontaneously stopped again, but this time from a traffic misunderstanding with another limousine driver. While waiting for it to be settled, Oscar recognises the person in the other limo, a woman named Eva, who turns out to be someone he hasn’t seen in 20 years. Finally we get to glance a bit more into Oscars own identity now outside of his limousine as they go to a vacant building where Eva has an appointment as an air hostess who spends her last night there. Through song on the way up the building, we’re informed that they used to have a child a long time ago and the deep grief they have about this. Oscar leaves before Eva’s customer arrives, and on his way back to the limousine he finds Eva and the customer dead on the ground, this time brutally showing the reality of this death as Oscar freaks out and runs to Céline’s limo.

The way to the last appointment is a bittersweet experience as Oscar obviously grieves the tragedy, but then also has some nice exchange with Céline. This last appointment is what brings the film to a full circle. Although it’s a totally different circumstance, as shown by the fact that he enters a home with apes living in it, he ends the day with a family by his side, assuming that the next morning he will leave just like he had in the previous.

4. Holy Motors garage

In the end we are shown Céline driving the limousine into a large garage alongside a lot of other limo's. We suddenly get a vague insight in the story of Céline as she parks and waits for everyone to leave, putting on a mask and calling someone about her coming home. As the lights dim and everyone has left, as a twist, the limousines come alive and speak with each other, discussing their own inevitable demise.

In conclusion, although Holy Motors stays in a linear flow in terms of time, it is most definitely a non-linear film, because it deviates from the usual act structures. We don’t get an introduction or plot points, as the film itself is almost like living out several different stories, without getting much closure on any of them.

Illustration list:

1. Holy Motors poster (2012); Available on: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cinematerial.com%2Fmovies%2Fholy-motors-i2076220%2Fp%2Fswc47bvr&psig=AOvVaw0QGwWNfHI-LSgkdQJz7L0Q&ust=1574715528852000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCOiLp9Heg-YCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD (Accessed at 24 November 2019)

2. Denis Lavant as Monsieur Merde. Holy Motors movie still

3. Denis Lavant as an uncle on his death bed. Holy Motors movie still

4. The Holy Motors garage. Holy Motors movie still